4 BULLETIN 56, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



on Rocks from the United States-Mexico Boundary.'^ More or less 

 progress has been made upon the other groups, and several pre- 

 liminary papers containing descriptions of species new to science and 

 based upon such material have been published. 



The Biological Section, because in charge of the medical officer, was 

 usually attached to the main or headquarters-camp, though every 

 possible latitude was allowed by the commissioners for the further- 

 ance of field work in zoology and botany. 



The health of the party was excellent. With the exception of a 

 soldier who died on duty, suifering from a chronic, though unsus- 

 pected disease, no lives were lost. A plucky recruit of the Second 

 Cavalry was shot while carrying the mail, by a desperate outlaw, but 

 he recovered quickly. Others of the party received gunshot wounds 

 resulting from the careless use of firearms, and others again, especially 

 members of the topographical party, were injured by falls while 

 climbing among the rocks and cliffs of an exceedingly rough and 

 broken country. When camped beside streams, a few members of 

 the party, including myself and Mr. Holzner, my assistant, contracted 

 malarial fevers. While at San Bernardino Spring (Monument No. 

 77), on the headwaters of the Yaqui, I was prostrated by sestivo- 

 autumnal malaria fever. Previous to this attack I had ■ arranged 

 for a trip down the San Bernardino and Yaqui rivers into the 

 country of the Yaqui Indians of Sonora, but malarial sickness com- 

 pelled me to move to a dry camp for the purpose of recuperation, 

 after exhausting the natural products of this semiaquatic collecting 

 ground, in which glimpses of the novelties in the plant and animal 

 kingdoms to be expected in the lower portions of the Yaqui were 

 obtained. To this day the northern part of the Yaqui Basin remains 

 the principal terra incognita of Mexico, and is certain to yield many 

 new species of plants and animals when its exploration becomes 

 possible. The native Yaquis, some of whom were in the employ of 

 the Mexican section of the survey, are a brave, semicivilized race. 

 Within a short period Mexico had succeeded in making a treaty with 

 them, but shortly after war again broke out, and it is to be expected 

 that all attempts to explore the Yaqui territory in the near future will 

 proA'^e as futile and disastrous as in times past — certainly much more 

 difficult than I would have found it with my friendly native guides. 

 I therefore look back with much regret to the lost opportunity of 

 which my own sickness and the necessity of caring for a severe 

 injury to the kneejoint of one of my companions deprived me. 



It was fortunate that I had so little professional work on my hands 

 not one of the party having left the survey on account of wounds or 

 sickness, for I was therefore left comparatively free to make observa- 

 tions and to collect materials for the biological report during the first 



oProc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XXI, 1899, pp. 773-788, with map, pi. lxxxv. 



